Assassination

I am shocked by your editorial stating the death of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi at the hands of the rebels who deposed him was the best possible outcome and that "had he been captured alive, the nation's fledgling leaders would have been forced to choose between trying him themselves or acquiescing to a war crimes trial in international court, either of which would have given a madman the attention he craved to the detriment of efforts at reconciliation...

Benjamin Lipsitz, whose commitment to the spirit and letter of the law led him to defend a would-be assassin, a Nazi sympathizer and a craven murderer during a career that spanned more than a half-century, died May 10. He was 94. "He was so fundamentally devoted to justice. He was Atticus Finch all over again," said retired Baltimore County Circuit Judge John Fader II. "To me, he was what lawyering and what representation are all about. " Lipsitz was chosen to defend Arthur Bremer, accused of shooting Democratic presidential candidate George Wallace and three others, including a Secret Service agent, at a Laurel shopping center in 1972.

WASHINGTON - All's fair in love and war, except when it isn't. Assassination is not fair under U.S. policy, unless we say it is. That's what the Bush administration seemed to be saying as it rebuked Israel Oct. 15 for assassinating a suspected Palestinian plotter of a Tel Aviv disco bombing. While the State Department renewed its opposition to "targeted killings," the Defense Department continued to target bombs at terrorist Osama bin Laden and Mullah Muhammed Omar, supreme leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime.

Fifty years later, the assassination of John F. Kennedy remains a galvanizing event, studied by serious scholars and conspiracy fringers with equal intensity. People who were old enough in 1963 still remember everything about the news flash that something horrible had happened in Dallas to the nation's youthful president. Those born much later may also find themselves haunted by this dark history. They may even create an opera about it. "Camelot Requiem," which receives its world premiere this weekend with Baltimore area singers and instrumentalists, is the latest and perhaps most ambitious undertaking to date of the Figaro Project, a DIY organization founded by soprano Caitlin Vincent in 2009.

This week starts with Kyle, who is increasingly becoming my least favorite Housewife. Did Kyle's family get egged? As a result of her meddling, I hope. Mauricio pretends to believe it's some high school prank targeting Alexia. But aww, it's a new car reveal! They got Alexia a Lexus C250. A C class Lexus for a girl who can't begin to parallel park? A 16-year-old? My life sucks. At least she seems sweet and grateful. Kyle knows her friends are going to resent this bit of showiness, but it's the fruit of Mauricio's new real estate company.

THE recent airing of taped telephone conversations between Lyndon B. Johnson and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover offered an intriguing look into the mind of the nation's new president during the days immediately following John F. Kennedy's assassination.The tapes also served to remind us of the numb shock we felt in the days and weeks after Nov. 22, 1963, as we realized who was replacing our beloved slain president.After all, Johnson represented not only the state where Kennedy was gunned down, but the resurgence of a South which had for decades fought to block progressive social legislation.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan-- --The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the charismatic opposition leader who had promised to restore democracy in Pakistan, set off a nationwide wave of grief and fury and raised the specter of violent unrest that could threaten the government of U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf. At least 20 other people died in yesterday's assault just outside the main gates of a Rawalpindi park where Pakistan's first prime minister was assassinated in 1951. Bhutto's white SUV was hit by close-range gunfire, then rocked by a powerful explosion set off by a suicide attacker.

TC CBS News will look at the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy on "48 Hours" Feb. 5. While Oliver Stone's controversial film "JFK" prompted the scheduling of the broadcast, CBS officials say they are not certain that Mr. Stone will be asked to participate, since it is not intended as a point-by-point refutation of Mr. Stone's film.CBS News' last prime-time hour about the assassination aired in 1975, when its conclusions dovetailed with the Warren Commission's: that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the president.

WASHINGTON -- Scores of researchers, reporters and assassination theorists descended on the National Archives yesterday to begin poring over 800,000 pages of newly released documents on the death of John F. Kennedy.The files, organized in gray cardboard boxes, held long-secret CIA cables and memos about Lee Harvey Oswald, as well as most records of the Warren Commission's investigation of the crime, the records of the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1979 and those of the 1975 Rockefeller Commission study of CIA domestic activities.

Let's see, last week NBC re-examined the Kennedy assassination.The week before, it was "Inside Edition" and CNN.Tonight, CBS and Dan Rather take their turn with "48 Hours: JFK" at 10 on WBAL-TV (Channel 11).Why all the TV interest these days?The TV reports in part are all reactions to the debate over the 1963 assassination sparked by "JFK," the Oliver Stone movie. Stone's film says Kennedy's assassination was the result of a conspiracy and not simply the work of a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald.

This week starts with Kyle, who is increasingly becoming my least favorite Housewife. Did Kyle's family get egged? As a result of her meddling, I hope. Mauricio pretends to believe it's some high school prank targeting Alexia. But aww, it's a new car reveal! They got Alexia a Lexus C250. A C class Lexus for a girl who can't begin to parallel park? A 16-year-old? My life sucks. At least she seems sweet and grateful. Kyle knows her friends are going to resent this bit of showiness, but it's the fruit of Mauricio's new real estate company.

Harford County's most notorious native son has been exhumed theatrically. "The Booth Project," an experimental work about Lincoln's assassin premiering this week at the Theatre Project , is the brainchild of Baltimore native Ryan Clark. So is the company performing it - Quarry Theatre Clark returned to the area about three years ago from New York City, where he held posts with a theater company and a performing arts high school. He has been teaching at Harford Community College and Towson University, and will soon join the faculty at the Catonsville campus of the Community College of Baltimore County.

Wednesday, on the United States' 236th Independence Day, Ubisoft sent around the newest trailer for October's fervently-awaited "Assassin's Creed 3. " The trailer, titled "Rise," (watch it below) is 95 percent live-action scenes that will not appear in the game, but is nonetheless a powerful and well-crafted appetizer to keep the aura of the game alive in the minds of gamers a full business quarter before its release. I have to respectfully disagree with a couple industry writers and commentators who thought the trailer was "terrible," tapping into "good old Tea Party-style American nationalism" and (this is the best one)

Kenneth O'Donnell, aide to President John F. Kennedy, stepped into a small cubicle at Parkland Hospital, where Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson nervously waited with his wife and several aides to learn the condition of the president. Kennedy had been shot as his motorcade made its way through downtown Dallas on a sun-splashed November autumn afternoon. "He's gone," O'Donnell said to Johnson, who through an assassin's hand had become the 36th president of the United States. It was 1:30 p.m. Central Standard Time, Nov. 22, 1963.

News Roundup •••• "Minecraft's" release on Xbox Live has gone about as well as anyone could have hoped. Early sales figures project that the game sold over 400,000 copies in the first day it was available. [ Major Nelson ] •••• Beyoncé is being sued for $100 million by game developer Gate Five for abruptly backing out of a deal for a game called “Starpower: Beyoncé.” It appears as though Gate Five was having trouble securing financing, and when Beyoncé walked it had to lay off 70 employees.

News Roundup •••• “Halo 4” got a November 6th release date, announced in completely subtle fashion through a 10-minute spot on “Conan.” Details of the gameplay have already started to surface. To make you feel especially old, it will have been 11 years since the original “Halo” came out. [ Team Coco ] •••• Bethesda released the debut trailer for Arkane Studios' new first-person action game “Dishonored.” Based on the cinematic clip, it definitely looks like a must-play.

Howard Donahue, the Towson resident whose theory about the shooting of John F. Kennedy is the basis for the soon-to-be-published book "Mortal Error," will be a guest on "Good Morning, America" on Thursday.Mr. Donahue, a gun expert, theorizes that the third bullet to hit the president in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, was fired accidentally by a Secret Service bodyguard, whom he names in the book. (The Secret Service has called the assertion "ridiculous.") "Mortal Error," written by journalist Bonar Menninger, is to be in bookstores tomorrow, and the publisher, St. Martin's Press, says advance orders have exceeded 100,000.

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld probably spoke for most Americans when he called the Nov. 3 death of Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi "a very good thing." Mr. al-Harethi, recall, was a suspect in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and al-Qaida's chief operative in Yemen. With a resume like that, few Americans likely paused to mourn his passing. But the way he died may give pause to Americans concerned with how their government is prosecuting the war on terrorism. Mr. al-Harethi, also known as Abu Ali, was killed -- executed, if you like -- by a remote-controlled U.S. missile strike on his car as he drove around the northern Yemeni province of Marib.

News Roundup •••• According to Kotaku, the next PlayStation is codenamed "Orbis," it will be out next year and will not be friendly to used games or PlayStation 3 games. No word on if it blocks the door to your house and collects a toll every time you try and leave. [ Kotaku ] •••• "SimCity" will require a live internet connection to start playing, and will be an "internet-dependent" gaming experience. The emphasis on multiplayer seems like a convenient excuse to employ serious digital rights management, no?

News Roundup   •••• "Angry Birds Space" did more than 10 million downloads in under three days. In my professional opinion, that's a lot of flippin' downloads. [ @ AngryBirds ] •••• Some simultaneous details about the Wii U and “Assassin's Creed III” have been revealed. With so much synergy being promoted between titles like “AC3” and “Ninja Gaiden III” and Nintendo's new console it seems that the image of “kids and families only” might be one Nintendo is looking to shed.